There
is a certain monotony to the history of
Charlotte and Mecklenburg County in the first
half of the twentieth century. There were
consequential developments, not the least being
an increase in Charlotte's population from
18,091 in 1900 to 134,052 in 1950 and
Mecklenburg County's from 55,268 to 197,052.
Just as in the Civil War, Charlotte-Mecklenburg
was the site of important military bases during
World War One and World War Two. Skyscrapers
soared over the old center city, beginning with
the already mentioned Realty or
Independence Building in 1909 and
continuing with the First National Bank Building
and the
Johnston Building in the 1920s. Exquisite
suburbs like and
Eastoverappeared
on the edges of Charlotte. Banks gradually
replaced textile mills as the main component of
Charlotte's economy. In 1917, the City
abandoned voting by wards for elections to
municipal governing boards, thereby increasing
the influence of the wealthy white elite upon
governmental decisions. The city acquired a
municipal airport and endured the Great
Depression of the 1930s. Finally, James B. Duke
provided the capital necessary to make the
Catawba River a generator of hydroelectric
power. But these years nonetheless lacked the
drama and passion of the decades that preceded
them and that followed them.

This
picture of newly-elected Mayor Douglas
and the Charlotte City Council appeared
in the Charlotte Observer in May
1935. Seated left to right on the front
row are Claude L. Albea, W. N. Hovis,
Mayor Ben E. Douglas, L. R. Sides, and
John F. Boyd. Standing left to right on
the back row are J. S. Nance, Herbert H.
Baxter, J. H. Huntley, Mayor Pro-Tem
John L. Wilkinson, J. S. Tipton, W. Roy
Hudson, and John F. Durham. All are
white males. That's the way it was in
Charlotte-Mecklenburg for over 60 years.

The essential
dullness of Charlotte-Mecklenburg's history
during these years arises from the fact that
wealthy white businessmen were in virtual
control of all public affairs. “Most major
urban decisions in the early twentieth century,”
writes historian Blaine A. Brownell, “and the
conceptual context within which these decisions
were made, can be traced directly to the
socio-economic elite group.” Men like David
Ovens , James B. Duke , Cameron Morrison , and
Ben Douglas succeeded in suppressing all
alternatives to their program of continuous
economic growth. "Watch Charlotte Grow" became
the catch phrase of the chieftains of local
industry and commerce. In this writer's
opinion, the clash of ideas and viewpoints is
the very lifeblood of democracy. The first half
of the twentieth century in
Charlotte-Mecklenburg was the very antithesis of
the encouragement of such intellectual
ferment. Especially after a bloody streetcar
strike in 1919, which threatened to bring class
warfare to Charlotte, the moguls of Charlotte
and Mecklenburg County sought to exclude all
competing viewpoints from the marketplace of
ideas.

Seeing
themselves as defenders of order against unruly
blacks and unreliable mill workers, the
"commercial civic-elite," says historian Thomas
Hanchett, used their political preeminence to
reshape the physical form of Charlotte into a
network of homogenous districts, including
immaculate neighborhoods like Myers Park ,
Eastover , and the curvilinear section of
Dilworth . In 1875, Charlotte, like most
Southern urban centers, "looked like a
scattering of salt and pepper." Rich and poor,
black and white, storeowner and day laborer
frequently lived side by side in the same
block. Homes, craft shops, stores, and livery
stables were all mixed in together. The idea
that Charlotte would have one district
exclusively devoted to business, another to
manufacturing, another for laborers, and another
for blacks would have been unthinkable in 1875.
"The landscape of Charlotte expressed confidence
in tradition," explains Hanchett. "Well into the
1870s, Charlotteans organized their city in ways
that would have seemed familiar to a time
traveler from colonial days or even from
Medieval Europe."

"By the end
of the 1920s," Hanchett contends, "Charlotteans
had undergone a conceptual shift in their
definition of a desirable urban landscape."
Hanchett continues: "Now Charlotteans resided in
a patch-work pattern of self-contained
neighborhoods, each distinct in its
developer-devised street system and each largely
homogeneous in its racial and economic makeup."

Hanchett
singles out Piedmont Park , which opened soon
after 1900, as the suburb that led the way in
showing how to keep "undesirable" elements away.
Situated on both sides of Central Avenue between
Kings Drive and Louise Avenue, Piedmont Park was
the brainchild of two of Charlotte's most
influential developers , F. C. Abbott and
George Stephens . The pastor of Second
Presbyterian Church called the location of the
proposed residential district "an old hillside
farm covered with sage grass and inhabited by
nothing but jackrabbits." Piedmont Park,
however, was to become the first neighborhood in
Charlotte to abandon the city's grid street
pattern. This helped make it feel like a realm
set apart.

Rev.
George H. Detwiler House

Jake
Newell House

A striking
example of an early Piedmont Park residence is
the Reverend
George H. Detwiler Houseat
801 Sunnyside Avenue. Built in 1903 as the home
of a Methodist minister and lovingly restored in
recent years, the Queen Anne style abode
bespeaks of the tranquility and repose that
white suburbanites were seeking to find in
Charlotte's peripheral neighborhoods. Also on
Sunnyside Avenue is the. Newell, a prominent
Republican lawyer, hired architect Fred Bonfoey
in 1911 to design his Rectilinear Four Square
style home. Bonfoey had come to Charlotte from
Connecticut about 1908. “By May, 1911,” writes
historian William H. Huffman, “Bonfoey had
designed over fifty bungalows, a style in which
he specialized, and these and others were built
in various parts of the city, including Dilworth
,
Belmont Villa Heights,
Elizabeth
, and, of course, Piedmont Park.”

Deed
covenants were the most innovative tools that
Abbott and Stephens introduced to exclude people
of the "wrong" race or poor whites from Piedmont
Park . " . . . the covenants provided a bulwark
against a society that seemed to be growing more
and more topsy-turvy," Hanchett contends. "In
such a district the 'best population' would
suffer no intrusions from people who did not
'know their place.'" Deed covenants, explains
Hanchett, "hammered home three essentials of the
sorted-out city." First, Piedmont Park would be
exclusively residential, meaning that workplace
and domicile could no longer exist side by side.
Second, deed covenants stipulated that African
Americans could not own or rent homes in
Piedmont Park. The era of racially segregated
neighborhoods mandated by law was at hand.
Finally, houses had to cost at least $1500, a
substantial sum in that day. This meant that
poor whites could not afford to own homes in
Piedmont Park.

The same
principles of exclusion governed the character
of Charlotte's other streetcar suburbs,
including Elizabeth , Chatham Estates , Wilmore
, Dilworth , and Myers Park , and its first
automobile suburb, Eastover . Clearly, the
underlying desire of the New South leaders was
to seal themselves off in homogenous, secure
enclaves to which they could retreat after
working hard all day to advance the economy of
Charlotte and its environs and thereby justify
their control of local politics. Edward
Dilworth Latta , for example, built an elegant
Neo Colonial Revival style mansion on East
Boulevard in Dilworth. Cotton broker Ralph
VanLandingham and his rich wife Susie had
architect
C. C. Hook design a Bungalow style
residence for them on The Plaza in Chatham
Estates.

In
summary, knowing that racial and class tensions
were an inevitable consequence of their actions,
people like the Lattas and the VanLandinghams,
unlike Charlotte leaders of early generations,
were apprehensive about residing in close
proximity to those of lesser economic or social
standing. Consequently, wealthy whites migrated
to the edges of town in increasing numbers after
the advent of the electric streetcar and the
automobile made suburban life more feasible.

Sometimes
owners went as far as to take their houses with
them. In 1916, Dr. Charles R. McManaway had
his elegant Italianate style mansion moved from
West Trade Street to Queens Road in Myers Park
. Ten years later Benjamin Withers , founder of
a building supply business, moved his imposing
home from East Trade Street to Selwyn Avenue,
also in Myers Park. Joseph Efird became
Withers’s son-in-law when he married Elizabeth
Withers in 1917. A native of Anson County,
Efird eventually acquired the family home on
Selwyn Avenue, and from 1909 until his
retirement in 1956 he headed a department store
empire that at its height contained over 50
stores.

William
Henry Belk

Merchants played a
significant role in Charlotte’s economic growth
in the early 1900s. Known to be hospitable to
enterprising businessmen and still benefiting
from its excellent railroad connections,
Charlotte continued to be a mecca of sorts for
ambitious young men who sought to make more
money. William Henry Belk , a South
Carolinian, established a store here on
September 25, 1895, in a rented building just
off the Square on East Trade Street. A talented
retailer, Belk acquired his own building in 1905
and by the time of his death in 1952 headed the
largest and most successful chain of department
stores in the two Carolinas. “He enjoyed the
very scent of quality merchandise freshly
unpacked and shelved and stacked,” says Belk’s
biographer.

Another of
Charlotte’s major turn-of-the-century merchants
was Joseph Ivey. Joseph Benjamin Ivey , the
handsome son of a Methodist preacher, opened a
small storeroom in rented space near the Square
on February 18, 1900. Ivey's first day's sales
totaled $33.18. "We had to study carefully and
push the lines that the other merchants did not
make a specialty," the enterprising merchant
explained many years later. "For instance, at
one time brass buttons were quite the rage. I
was careful to keep in a supply all of the time
while the other merchants were not noticing and
allowed their stock to get low." Among Ivey's
early employees was David Ovens , who joined J.
B. Ivey & Company in 1904. "I would probably
have been satisfied with a moderate business
that would make something over a living," said
Ivey, "but Mr. Ovens was ambitious to make J. B.
Ivey & Company a big store and the business grew
rapidly under our combined efforts."

J. B. Ivey

A devout
Methodist, Ivey insisted that the curtains be
drawn in his store windows on Sundays, so that
the pedestrians would not be tempted to consider
matters of this world on the Lord's day.
Can you imagine a merchant doing such a thing
today? Hardly. Our cultural values have
undergone radical change since Ivey's day.

J. B. Ivey
had a wide range of interests. He was an avid
traveler. He also devoted great amounts of time
and energy to growing flowers, especially
tulips, dahlias, and gladiolas at his home in
Myers Park , near the intersection of Queens
Road and East Morehead Street. Many people
remember that the restaurant in Ivey's
Department Store was named the Tulip Terrace.
Gorgeous tulip beds surrounded Ivey's home in
Myers Park. There was even a miniature Dutch
windmill in the yard.

This 1939
photograph shows the tulip garden at
Ivey's home. It illustrates the idyllic
suburban retreat Charlotte's New South
elite sought to create.

The Ivey's
Department Store at Fifth and North Tryon
Streets was designed by English architect
William H. Peeps and opened as the new home of
J. B. Ivey & Company in 1924. The store was
renovated and enlarged in 1939. On May 4, 1990,
Ivey's was purchased by Dillard's, another
department store chain. The building has
recently been converted into luxury
condominiums.

Myers Park
is the most historically significant of
Charlotte's streetcar suburbs. Thomas Hanchett
and Mary Norton Kratt ably tell the
neighborhood's history in their book,
Legacy: The Myers Park Story. The events
leading up to the founding of Myers Park in 1912
bear dramatic testimony to the positive
consequences of New South leadership. The
simple truth is that the business elite of
Charlotte, undistracted after 1900 by the
complications associated with genuine democratic
processes and intrusive government, could act
quickly and decisively, and sometimes the
results of their actions were stunning. Myers
Park is a case in point. Largely because of its
bold and innovative design, Myers Park became
the place where most of Charlotte's powerful and
influential citizens decided to live. Lining
its cathedral-like streets like pearls on an
expensive strand are the pretentious homes of
most of the men who shaped Charlotte in the
first half of the twentieth century.

George
Stephens

The individual
most responsible for the creation of Myers Park
was George Stephens , the co-developer of
Piedmont Park . A native of Guilford County and
an 1896 graduate of the University of North
Carolina, Stephens had come to Charlotte to
join the insurance agency headed by Walter Brem
, the father of Stephens's roommate at Chapel
Hill. In 1899, Stephens became a partner with
F. C. Abbott in the real estate firm of Abbott
and Stephens, the first seller of homes to use
"For Sale" signs in the city. "George was ten
years my junior in age," Abbott remembered, "a
fine genial fellow . . . a great athlete . . .
and very popular with his many friends." Abbott
and Stephens also organized the Southern States
Trust Company , which has evolved into the Bank
of America of today.

The
Colonial Revival George Stephens House
on Harvard Place, designed by Hunter and
Gordon.

Obviously a man of
considerable ambition and talent, Stephens in
1902 married Sophie Myers , daughter of John
Springs Myers , whose father had donated the
land for Biddle Memorial Institute . Myers had
inherited a large farm on Providence Road about
three miles southeast of Charlotte. He sold it
to his son-in-law's new company, the Stephens
Company , on July 15, 1911. This land and
adjoining parcels that Stephens had purchased
would become the location for Myers Park . To
design his new subdivision Stephens hired a
young landscape architect named John Nolen,
whom Stephens had met while serving on
Charlotte's Park and Tree Commission during the
planning and construction of Independence Park
. It was the indefatigable New South booster
D. A. Tompkins who made Stephens aware of
Nolen.

This early
photograph of Myers Park shows the
newly-planted street trees along Ardsley
Road, looking toward Providence Road
from Harvard Place. The Duke Mansion is
on the left.

As early as 1894,
when Edward Dilworth Latta had offered Latta
Park in Dilworth for sale to the City, the
Charlotte Observer had supported the
establishment of a municipal park system. In
August 1901, the newspaper renewed its
commitment, declaring that "all cities of
consequence own their parks." On March 7, 1904,
D. A. Tompkins appeared before the Board of
Aldermen in his capacity as president of the
Southern Manufacturer's Club. In keeping with
his reputation as an effective and resourceful
advocate, Tompkins amassed an impressive
aggregate of materials and arguments in favor of
his contention that Charlotte needed a public
park.

No doubt
aware that the Board practiced frugality in all
financial matters, Tompkins suggested that the
park be placed at the former site of the
municipal waterworks, thereby eliminating the
need for the City to purchase land. He pointed
out that the property would be served by two
trolley lines, the Piedmont Park line and the
Elizabeth College line and, therefore, would be
readily accessible to the rank-and-file citizens
of Charlotte. The most compelling argument that
Tompkins advanced was that public parks were a
prudent and wise investment because they
improved the moral and economic climates in
cities. In support of this claim, Tompkins
quoted from letters that elected officials in
several communities had written to him such as
Savannah, Georgia, Richmond, Virginia,
Charleston, South Carolina, Mobile, Alabama,
Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Toledo, Ohio.

At its
meeting on March 7, 1904, the Board of Aldermen
responded affirmatively to Tompkins's proposal
and appointed Tompkins to head a special
committee to oversee the project. He toured the
site on April 23, 1904, with engineers from the
City and discussed preliminary plans for the
park. During the summer of 1904, Tompkins also
negotiated with the owners of nearby property to
secure the donation of additional land. He was
successful. On August 1, 1904, Tompkins
presented the deeds for approximately 47.5 acres
of land to the Board of Aldermen, including
12.85 acres from the Highland Park Realty
Company, developers of Elizabeth , and 5.57
acres from the Piedmont Realty Company,
developers of Piedmont Park .

The
acceptance of this property by the City assured
that the park would become a reality. The
Charlotte Observer greeted this news
joyously. "It will unquestionably prove a
blessing to the community, and public spirited
men are unsparing in the gratification of its
assured certainty," the newspaper proclaimed.
D. A Tompkins explained at length the benefits
which he believed the park would provide for
Charlotte and especially for the industrial
laborers who resided there. "We are increasing
our industrial population, and many of our
laboring men do not have an opportunity to get
out into the country but once a week, on
Sundays," he explained. "It is a good thing for
them to have a park such as this will be."

On October
21, 1904, the Charlotte Observer
reported that the City had selected the name
Independence Park , no doubt in tribute to the
alleged
Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence of
1775. The Board of Aldermen created a Park and
Tree Commission on November 7, 1904, to
supervise the construction of the facility. Not
surprisingly, Tomplins became chairman. The
Commission moved ahead with dispatch. By June
1905, it had established contact with several
landscape architects for purposes of soliciting
proposals. The winner of this competition was
Nolen. The design of
Independence Park was the initial commission
in what would become an illustrious career.
Nolen earned a reputation for being one of the
premier landscape architects and comprehensive
planners in the United States.It is
noteworthy that Tompkins and his associates
would demonstrate such care in selecting the
designer for Independence Park. This scrutiny
was a manifestation of the New South leaders'
commitment to making Charlotte a grand and
majestic city, at least as long as such
initiatives did not conflict with their economic
agenda. In the opinion of the Charlotte News
, it was the duty of the Park and Tree
Commission "to make Charlotte famous for the
beauty of its parks."

John Nolen
came to Charlotte in 1905 to supervise the
implementation of his plan. During his sojourn
in this community, Nolen explained the theories
and concepts which underlay modern landscape
architecture. "It is a pleasure to talk with Mr.
Nolen," the Charlotte Observer asserted.
"He lives close to nature. His ideas and ideals
are fresh and clean." On April 7, 1906, the
Charlotte Observer reported that a "handsome
driveway" at the upper and at the lower end of
Independence Park had been built. The
completion of these improvements, however, did
not terminate Nolen's association with the Park
and Tree Commission. He returned to Charlotte on
several occasions to advise the Commission and
to give public lectures and eventually developed
an overall plan for Charlotte's development,
which was never implemented. It is not
surprising that George Stephens selected Nolen
to fashion Myers Park .

Stephens
recognized that only a high-quality planned
community would be able to lure Charlotte’s
affluent residents from their center city
estates. Nolen later wrote that Myers Park
was "designed right from the first, and
influenced only by the best practice in modern
town planning." In keeping with his philosophy
that the fashioning of neighborhoods should be
approached holistically, Nolen oversaw every
detail of planning, including the layout of
streets, the selection of trees and shrubs for
street plantings, and even the drafting of
individual landscaping schemes for the buyers of
houses. “It is the painstaking work of this
pioneer city planner and his successor Earle
Sumner Draper that sets this area off from
others where the wealthy lived in the same
period, and that has made Myers Park Charlotte's
most lastingly successful early suburb,” writes
Hanchett.

Although some
streets in Myers Park were reserved for
moderate price homes, such as Amherst, Colonial,
and Hermitage Court, most of the neighborhood
had houses for the affluent. Also, as in
Piedmont Park , deeds contained covenants
setting forth a wide range of regulations,
including the kind of fences, the minimum
allowable home prices, and the exclusion of all
people except members of the white race. Houses
in Myers Park mirror "the changing national
fashions in architecture from the 1910s to the
present," explain Kratt and Hanchett. There are
no Victorian homes, such as the Reverend
Detwiler House in Piedmont Park or the
Liddell-McNinch House in Fourth Ward. They
were passé by the 1910s. Most prevalent in the
neighborhood are examples of Colonial Revival,
Tudor Revival, Bungalow, and Rectilinear or Four
Square.

David
Ovens House in Myers Park

According to Kratt
and Hanchett, the best example of the
Rectilinear or Four Square style in Myers Park
is the David Ovens House built in 1916 at 825
Ardsley Road. Houses of this genre retain
Victorian-like floor plans but have box-like,
unadorned exteriors. The original landscaping
was by Earle Sumner Draper for the John Nolen
firm. The home and its surroundings are
suggestive of the straightforward pragmatism
that formed the core of
David Ovens 's being. This man, now
forgotten by most Charlotteans, is one of many
individuals who have demonstrated the pivotal
importance of leadership in making Charlotte the
city that it is today.